Day 194 - Mount Edgecumbe House

Looking back toward Cawsand and Kingsand

Our visit today to Mount Edgecumbe Park took us east from Cawsand along the Southwest Coastal Path toward Plymouth. The temperature is still quite cool, but I was not going to be stopped from wearing shorts! However, I did put on a very heavy sweater. Along the way, the path rises up and provides a panoramic view of the Plymouth Sound and then it crosses into the park, which now belongs to the city of Plymouth, although for centuries it belonged to the Edgecumbe family who sold it to the city.

In 1553, Richard Edgcumbe completed the construction of a magnificent home and it became the location for grand parties that entertained the wealthy, including foreign diplomats. It's reported that one of those diplomats was a Spanish Duke who would eventually lead the Spanish Armada in 1588.  He liked the house so much he was going to take it as his reward should the Armada succeed in taking this part of England.

In its grander days...

The Edgecumbe family as one would expect were Royalists and during the mid 1600's the house was taken away from them by the Parliamentarians although it eventually ended up back in their hands when the royalty was restored.  The family then expanded the house and it continued to be the center of entertainment for the area.  During the Second World War the house was destroyed by German bombing in 1941 as part of what has been referred to as the "Plymouth Blitz".

... and today.

Edgecumbe Park isn't in Plymouth proper, but unfortunately it was under the flight path of the German Luftwaffe when they first cross over land on their way to bombing the naval base and the docks.  One day some bombers decided to begin dropping their bombs early and they hit the house. After the war, the Edgecumbe family re-built the house although much smaller than its original size.

Nothing like a walk in
the park!

The surrounding park is over 500 acres and it has gardens everywhere. The most amazing is filled with Camellia bushes, and at this time of the year they are full of blossoms. The bushes are not native to England, but the collection at Edgecumbe were donated to the park by collectors who had imported them from the tropics and had experimented with certain varieties to grow some that are hardy enough to survive in this climate.

One of the more than 1,000 Camillia bushes in the park.

There are other remnants of days gone by on the estate with old stables and coachhouses now converted into stores and artist studios. The lawns of the estate lead down to the village of Cremyll where one can catch a foot ferry across to the old navy dockyards in Plymouth. More about Cremyll in another blog post.  Having walked as far as one can (unless one can walk on water), we turned and walked back using an alternative combination of lanes and minor footpaths.

Ale of the Day: Tribute Cornish Pale Ale, St. Austell Brewery, Cornwall